Faith Perspective: ISIS and individual v. collective

Political leaders are divided as to whether our nation should be totally invested (including “boots on the ground”) in conflict with ISIS, or whether to some measure¸ we can accommodate to their presence.

Evil has always been an essential element of human existence. Cain, the first man born in this world, killed his brother Abel for no apparent reason. The evil that ISIS represents is that community, in this case, a religious entity (in Hitler’s, an ethnic one) is aware of absolute truth.

Where there is conflict with individual thought or desire, the individual is obligated to accommodate to the collective. In what may be a life or death struggle with this assumption, we must be wary of clinging to the opposite hypothesis, i.e., that truth, beauty and righteousness are all within individual determination.

The world conflict we face is played out in miniature within the precincts of individual families. Father, in the traditional family, represents the voice of accepted values. (Mother traditionally played the role of mediator.) The child asserts his or her right to express individual beliefs, desires. Within the successful family, there is compromise.

Whether within the limited scope of family or the limitless cosmos, the two forces are in opposition, i.e., the voice of the individual or the voice of the collective. Loyal members of ISIS, as their Nazi forerunners, have totally abandoned the provinces of individual thought or feeling.

The enemy we face today is not Islam. Large elements of the Muslim world are familiar with the Koran and find wisdom and inspiration in its teaching. But, like liberal religious of other faiths, they are selective in belief and observance.

Portions of the tradition are wise and inspiring. They clearly represent the will of God, and are to be honored and obeyed. Other portions may have held authority for the faithful in past generations, or in out own. But it is the task of the individual worshiper to determine whether that portion of sacred teaching is intended for him or her.

We are not threatened in present circumstances by the world of Islam. We are threatened by a portion of that world that demands total subservience to its teaching.

Rabbi Jay Brickman is the Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Sinai in Milwaukee.